By the time I had woken up on Saturday the bad weather that had been forecast seemed to have passed so we decided to head over to the Llanelli site of the WWT. The recent sightings board at the centre reported a Yellow Browed Warbler having being seen the previous two days. There have been numerous examples of this bird seen around the area and indeed the whole country over recent weeks, but I have so far proved unsuccessful in my normal haunts. Today was to be no different despite a briefly exciting episode with a brightly coloured Goldcrest.
Elsewhere the Long Tailed Tits were showing extremely well, with certain individuals approaching to within touching distance. It was also very nice to see a male and female Bullfinch together near the Michael Powell Hide. I don’t know if these birds are particularly renowned for pairing up, but I cannot remember ever having seen a Bullfinch not in a pair. It was also good to see the House Sparrows a bit more visible than they have been. This is a species that I see so rarely now it really highlights their population decline over recent years.
Out on the various pools I managed to identify successfully for the first time a Bar Tailed Godwit. One example very obligingly sat on the grass to the rear of the British Steel Hide with its tail clear for all to see. There were also a couple of hundred Lapwings and good numbers of Greylag Geese and Widgeon. Strangely the number of Little Egrets was relativley low and I only saw one Grey Heron all day (ironically standing beneath the bird feeders at the entrance).
On Sunday we braved the showers for a look along the South side of the Burry Inlet. Penclawdd gave good showings of Curlews and Shellducks, with the waders being covered by a couple of Redshank and a Common Sandpiper flying up the channel. Elsewhere 15 Pintails were braving the rough seas and approximately 2,000 Oystercatchers were feeding along the shore of the estuary. A male Pheasant finished off the day and added a splash of colour to the torrential rain.
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